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Tuesday 5:30am - 8:30pm Wednesday 5:30pm - 8:30pm Thursday 5:30pm - 8:30pm Saturday 11:30am - 3:30pm

Wellness Empowered Counselling & Consulting Services

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Canada
Vegreville, AB
Wellness Empowered Counselling & Consulting Services

We empower others to find hope and joy in living by supporting them in their healing journeys.

08/07/2026

If you have been following Wellness Empowered for a while, you may know that our founder Shayla Dube was raised by her grandparents, who have always meant the world to her.

This week, Shayla lost her beloved grandfather. He will be laid to rest in Zimbabwe on Monday.

As a result, we will be pausing all business activities for a while to allow space for family, grief, and time to be together during this difficult period.

Grief is a reminder of the depth of our love. It is not something we “get over,” but rather something we learn to carry as we honour the lives of those who have shaped us.

Please keep Shayla, her grandmother, who is mourning the loss of her life partner of nearly 70 years and the entire Dube and Ndlovu families in your thoughts and prayers during this time.

Thank you for your grace, kindness, compassion, and understanding.

08/01/2026

Today, August 1, marks Emancipation Day in Canada.

As we commemorate the abolition of slavery across most of the British Empire in 1834, let us also remember the truths history often leaves out.

While slavery was abolished, the systems that sustained coloniality and racial inequities remained. The British government compensated enslavers for the “loss” of the people they enslaved, while those who endured generations of forced labour, violence, family separation, and dehumanization received no compensation.

The end of legal slavery did not mark the end of institutional anti-Black racism in Canada. The history of the Nova Scotia Home for Colored Children reminds us that legal freedom did not automatically bring justice, safety, dignity, or belonging. The forced destruction of Africville reminds us that Black communities in Canada continued to experience systemic displacement, dispossession, and exclusion long after the abolition of slavery.

Before talking about meritocracy, pause to consider the enduring legacies of slavery and coloniality.

Emancipation Day is more than remembering the abolition of slavery. It is about honouring the resilience and resistance of those who came before us, telling the truths too often omitted, and recommitting ourselves to the ongoing work of truth, justice, repair, and collective liberation.

07/31/2026

If you are a social worker, therapist, psychologist, counsellor, or child and family practitioner serving people of African descent, this chapter was written with you in mind.

Grounded in Afrocentricity and Africology, our Pluriversal Africentric Model for Child and Family Praxis brings together Yurugu, Sankofa, Ubuntu, Ma’at, and Kawaida to offer a culturally grounded approach to child and family practice. The sequencing is intentional because we cannot meaningfully decolonize without first understanding the dismemberment brought about by coloniality. Before we can reclaim, we must first understand what was fragmented. Beginning with Yurugu, the model examines the fragmentation of knowledge, being, and power through coloniality before moving to Sankofa, the work of reclaiming, remembering, and returning. Ubuntu restores relational personhood and collective wellbeing, Ma’at re-centres truth, justice, reciprocity, balance, and harmony, and Kawaida guides re-Africanized cultural praxis and community restoration. Together, these concepts invite us to rethink healing, knowledge, and practice in ways that foster cultural safety, epistemic sovereignty, community healing, holistic wellness, and collective liberation when working with African children, families, and communities.

If you are committed to culturally grounded, historically responsive, and justice-oriented practice, I invite you to read the chapter using the link at the bottom of the graphic and join us in expanding the profession’s knowledge base beyond a single worldview.

07/26/2026

If you don’t see us posting much here as often as we usually do, just know we’re behind the scenes building a legacy. 📚✨

We are honoured to share our published chapter, The Contribution of Africentric Social Work in Child and Family Interventions, in the Springer Nature reference book, Children and Family Social Work.

If you’re interested in Africentric social work, decolonizing knowledge, Indigenous and African ways of knowing, culturally responsive child and family practice, or expanding the knowledge base of our profession, I invite you to have a read.

Our sincere thanks to fellow Africentric Social Work instructors and co-authors, Dr. Ajwang Warria and Chika IkeOrji, and to the editors for the opportunity to contribute to this important body of work.

Every publication is another step towards ensuring that diverse knowledge systems are not only recognized and valued, but also preserved for future generations.

Legacy is built one page, one publication, and one generation at a time.

Happy reading! 🖤📖

07/25/2026

🖤 July 25 | International Day for Women & Girls of African Descent 🖤

In honor of International Day for Women & Girls of African Descent, tag a woman or girl of African descent whose wisdom, labour, love, or leadership has shaped your life. Today, let’s honour the women who continue to shape generations.

Today, I first honour the extraordinary African woman who raised me—my maternal grandmother, uGogo J.

At 86 years old, she has spent a lifetime in service to others. She was my Grade One teacher, an elementary school teacher, a community grandmother and aunty, and a midwife who was on village call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Her home was never just her home; it was a place of refuge, care, learning, healing, and belonging.

She taught me Ubuntu and social work long before I ever entered a classroom. My autobiographical narrative is woven with memories of watching her embody compassion, communal care, collective responsibility, and radical hospitality.

Long before I encountered theory, she had shown me that healing is relational, knowledge belongs to the community, and that our humanity is realized through how we care for one another. Those early lessons continue to shape my life, scholarship, and practice today.

Today, I honour her and the countless women and girls of African descent whose names may never appear in history books, yet whose wisdom, labour, love, and sacrifices have shaped generations.

🖤 We are because they were. We rise because they kept rising.

07/24/2026

This is just a snapshot of my reclaiming Ubuntu presentation in Kenya. It is really deeper that I am because you are!

07/17/2026

A snapshot from Shayla S. Dube’s presentation at the International Social Work Conference in Nairobi, Kenya, last month, which was made possible through University of Calgary

Her presentation explored the importance of reclaiming Ubuntu from colonial appropriation, reduction, and oversimplification, while reflecting on why Indigenous African knowledge systems deserve to be restored to the centre rather than the margins.

The full conversation is far deeper than a single clip can capture. May we continue to re-member what coloniality dismembered and reclaim what coloniality pushed to the margins.

In the spirit of Sankofa, may we commit to the ongoing work of decolonization by reclaiming our Indigenous knowledge systems, languages, cultures, histories, and ways of knowing, being, doing, becoming, and co-existing. The work of decolonization is not merely about resisting coloniality; it is about restoring the wholeness of our humanity.

Maarifa ni maisha, elimu si vitabu.
Knowledge is life; education is not confined to books.

07/14/2026

Please help us amplify this important community-based research from the University of Alberta led by Dayirai of Journeys of Life Ubuntu Wellness Inc. It takes a village.

If you identify as a Black woman (African, Caribbean, Black Canadian, or of African descent) and are a social worker, mental health therapist, psychologist, pharmacist, or dietitian currently working, or who has worked within the past two years, in Edmonton or Fort McMurray, your voice matters.

Research does not create our realities; it makes them harder to ignore. Too often, the workplace experiences of Black women in healthcare go undocumented, making systemic inequities easier to dismiss. What isn’t counted often doesn’t count.

By sharing your experiences through a confidential interview, you can help generate knowledge that informs more equitable workplaces, strengthens accountability, and contributes to meaningful change.

Please participate if you’re eligible and share this opportunity with your networks.

Thank you to the University of Alberta research team for advancing community-centred scholarship and creating space for Black women’s voices to be heard. 🖤

07/13/2026

Please help us amplify this important community-based research by the African Canadian Civic Engagement Council (African Canadian Civic Engagement Council). It takes a village.

If you are an African, Caribbean, or Black Albertan who has experienced a legal problem or dispute in the past three years, your voice matters.

Legal problems are not limited to criminal matters or going to court. They may include discrimination, employment issues, housing or tenancy disputes, immigration matters, family or custody disputes, consumer debt, human rights concerns, and other situations where legal information, advice, representation, or advocacy may have been helpful.

What isn’t counted often doesn’t count. Your participation can help inform policy, improve access to justice, and make systemic barriers harder to ignore.

Please participate if you’re eligible and share this opportunity within your networks.

See the poster for eligibility criteria and contact information on how to participate, and follow African Canadian Civic Engagement Council to learn more about this research and other community initiatives.

Community-based participatory research transforms lived experience into evidence that can inform more equitable policies, strengthen accountability, improve access to justice, and ensure that African, Caribbean, and Black communities are no longer excluded from the conversations and decisions that shape the systems meant to serve them.

Thank you, ACCEC, for centering the voices, knowledge, and lived experiences of African, Caribbean, and Black Albertans. Research is one of the many ways we move beyond anecdote to evidence, and from evidence to advocacy, accountability, and systemic change. 👏🏿🖤✊🏾🦅🛖🤝

07/12/2026

The AI-generated tribute image previously posted has been removed and replaced with a Canva-modified tribute following the feedback received. Thank you to everyone who shared their concerns & extended grace. We believe in learning, accountability, and doing better together.

The death of has weighed heavily on many of us. We extend our heartfelt condolences to the Wells family as they navigate profound grief in the public eye while seeking answers.

Trauma-informed practice reminds us that grief extends beyond those who knew someone personally. Sometimes a tragedy touches our shared humanity and leaves us carrying emotions we struggle to name.

You may be experiencing , where one tragedy follows another without time to heal.

You may be experiencing , the emotional and psychological impact of witnessing the suffering of others.

You may be experiencing , mourning someone you never met and navigating a grief that others may not understand.

Together, we are witnessing , where an entire community feels the weight of a life lost.

For many people racialized as Black, and others impacted by anti-Black racism, Nolan’s death may also be retraumatizing, awakening memories of George Floyd, Trayvon Martin, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Tamir Rice, Sandra Bland, Elijah McClain, and so many others. Although every story is different, new losses can reopen old wounds. Grief has a way of awakening what the body remembers.

While we do not yet know what happened to Nolan, Ubuntu reminds us that our humanity is bound together. We look for one another. We care for one another. We protect one another. We do not leave one another behind.

We mourn alongside the Wells family because Nolan was our son, our brother, one of us.

If this reflection has stirred something within you, please be gentle with yourself. Reach out. Rest. Talk. Grieve. Healing was never meant to happen in isolation.

RIP Nolan Xavier Wells.

RIP to the many others whose lives have been cut short too soon.

Nolan was someone’s son. May his family find truth, justice, and peace. May we never be silent in the face of injustice.

Address

4927 51 Avenue
Vegreville, AB
T9C1T9

Opening Hours

Tuesday	5:30am - 8:30pm
Wednesday	5:30pm - 8:30pm
Thursday	5:30pm - 8:30pm
Saturday	11:30am - 3:30pm

Telephone

+15878042116

Website

http://www.wellnessempowered.com/

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